Lori
Buchanan
User
Education Librarian
Austin
Peay State University
Clarksville,
Tennessee
<buchananl@apsu.edu>
Type of Institution
Austin Peay State University (APSU), Tennessee’s
designated public comprehensive liberal arts university, is located in urban
Clarksville (pop. 103,000), 45 miles northwest of the state capital,
Nashville. The University is a
Tennessee Board of Regents institution and is a member of the Cooperative
Center for Study Abroad. The
Library is a member of the Southeastern Library Network, the Nashville Area
Library Alliance, TENN-SHARE and the Tennessee Electronic Library.
Type of Library
APSU’s Woodward Library is most like the
Selective
liberal arts college Carnegie Foundation category.
Institutional Characteristics
Enrollment:
7,500
students
Distinguished programs include:
§
Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
§
Center of Excellence for Field Biology
§
Heritage Program (alternative core of interdisciplinary
Humanities courses in writing speaking and research –librarians team-teach)
§
Honors Program
§
International Education Center
§
Presidential Research Scholars Program
§
President’s Emerging Leaders Program
APSU’s educational emphasis is the liberal arts and
professional programs. The
University offers undergraduate programs in the above areas.
Its graduate programs serve the needs of the region and prepare
students for doctoral studies. Its
Nursing and Education Programs are among the best in the State.
On-campus majors and professional programs having the
largest enrollments (200 or more students during Fall 1999) are:
Education
Business
Nursing
Biology
Computer Science/
Communication Arts
Information Systems
On-campus majors with 100 or more students during Fall
1999 are:
Psychology
Art
English
Music
Chemistry
Agriculture
Social Work
Political Science
History
Health/Human
Performance
The largest number of degrees at the Austin Peay Center @
Fort Campbell during 1998-99 was awarded in General Studies.
User Demographics
4,629 full-time students; 2,811 part-time students
6,985 undergraduates; 455 graduate students
1,200 residential; 6,300 commuter
2,480 traditional (21 or younger); 2,841 non-traditional ( 22 or
older)*
2,416 headcount distance education; 1,083 FTE distance education**
33
international
0
teaching assistants teaching undergraduate courses
*on-campus figures only; most of distance education
students are non-traditional
** 92% attend the Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell
Library and Library Personnel
Library holdings: book volumes 317,252; periodical
subscriptions 1,787
No branch libraries
Online Catalog: Web version of Epixtech, formerly Horizon
Internet access is available via the InfoStations &
the Library Instruction Room
12 librarians, including the Library Dean; six librarians
(50%) are instructors
20 classified/support staff, none of whom participate in
instruction program
7 public services librarians; 4 technical services librarians; 1 Library Dean
Instruction Program Budget
There is not a separate budget line for the User
Education Program.
Instructional personnel, some software and duplicating
are funded out of the general Library budget.
Library Instruction and Computer Room (LICR) equipment and software
come out of the University’s Student Technology Access Fee Fund.
The 2000-2001 LICR budget, which is managed by the User Education
Librarian, is $20,000. It covers
student workers, paper and toner used during non-instructional hours when the
LICR serves as a student computer lab. In 1994, $110,000 was spent out of the Technology Access Fee
Fund to build and equip the LICR with 24 computers and printers, as well as
instructional equipment, including a video networking system.
In 1998, the 24 computers and the printers were replaced with new
equipment as part of the established campus-wide student lab 4-year
replacement cycle and special project funds.
The video networking system was replaced out of the Library Systems
budget.
The Instruction Program within the Organization
The User Education Program was formalized in 1986 with
the hiring of a User Education Librarian.
The Program operates under the purview of the Information Services
(Reference) Department, and the User Education Librarian reports to the Head
of Information Services. Information
Services librarians who are responsible for reference, user education,
electronic resources, interlibrary loan, distance education and government
publications share instructional duties.
The User Education Librarian performs sixty per cent of all library
instruction.
Training/Continuing Education
On-campus continuing education/training opportunities
specifically for instruction librarians do not exist; however, the librarians
take advantage of opportunities offered to the faculty at large.
Through the years, we have attended training sessions on such topics as
collaborative learning styles and web instruction development.
No formalized staff development program focussing on instruction exists
within the Library. However,
training sessions are held regularly by the Information Services Librarians.
In these sessions, staff members are trained about changes to the
Library’s InfoStation and are shown how to help library users use available
electronic information sources.
Connections/Relationships
Librarians have made positive connections with other
campus units. The Library’s
System Department works with Computer Services to maintain servers and network
connections. Campus committee
work, such as the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Development Review Committee and
the Technology Funding Review Committee, helps the librarians establish good
working relationships with other faculty and staff.
We also serve as members of the Technology Board and as members and
leaders of the Academic Technology Council and Campus Computer Lab Committee.
Our instruction librarians team-teach with Composition and Speech
instructors in the Heritage Program. We
collaborate with Composition instructors on in-service workshops for local
school teachers, and provide library tours and instruction for local school
groups and for organizations such as the Boy Scouts. In the mid 1990’s,
librarians co-taught the Internet to campus users and to Tennessee K-12
teachers with other faculty and the Computer Services staff.
Instruction Program Content
The APSU User Education Program provides three types of
formal instruction. They include:
orientations (3%), course-integrated instruction (12%) and course-related
instruction (85%). The
predominant type is one-shot, course-related instruction, which is delivered
to approximately 110 classes a year. Five
course-integrated instruction sessions are delivered to three Heritage class
sections each year.
In 1987, the User Education Librarian wrote a proposal
advocating the use of course-related and course-integrated instruction at
APSU. The librarians embrace
these types of instruction in the Library’s Mission Statement and Goals.
It states that “Foremost among [the Library’s] functions is
teaching and the provision of information literacy opportunities to all levels
of the University community, in order to equip its members with the skills
needed to be competent life-long learners.”
Specific teaching goals listed are: “1) Emphasize the role of
teaching and instruction in all venues and forms, including individual and
technology-based instruction and formal course integrated courses;
2) Develop creative mechanisms enhancing the Library’s
constituents’ information literacy, critical thinking skills, and life-long
learning; and 3) Expand the Library’s services to distance learning students
including those at off-campus sites.”
The content of instruction is determined by the
librarians who instruct. Instruction
librarians work together to improve content through informal discussions,
email and formal meetings. They
teach toward the assignments which students must complete for the classroom
instructor. Course-related
instruction sessions for freshman level courses include an introduction to the
Library’s services and the research process.
Depending on the class assignment, basic searching techniques for the
online catalog, electronic periodical databases and the Internet are
introduced. More specialized research techniques and sources are taught
to the upper division and graduate classes.
Feedback from faculty members is solicited and is used by the
librarians to modify instruction. Although
they are not formalized in every case, student outcomes are discussed for each
type of instruction. At this
point, we do not have an agreed upon definition of information literacy.
Description of Problem
The issue I want to solve involves planning and
implementing 1) a review of the
Library’s User Education Program, 2) modifications of the Program to
incorporate the ACRL approved Information Literacy Competency Standards
appropriate to library instruction and 3)
an assessment process to determine if the library instruction is meeting the
Standards. The end result will be
that the Library is doing its part to ensure that APSU students become
information literate.
No evaluations or assessments have been undertaken.
The problems listed below were identified based on my impressions,
discussions with my library colleagues and faculty feedback.
Problems include:
§
instruction has not been reviewed and updated in light of the
new Information Literacy Standards
§
instruction has been driven by technology, that is it focuses so
much on the mechanics of using electronic resources that important information
literacy concepts are not being covered
§
formal assessment has been lacking
Structural Components
Our Program is primarily driven by demand.
Although we are proactive in seeking out instructional opportunities,
course-related instruction is offered primarily upon faculty request.
A wide range of courses are reached, including
§
many of the sections of English 1010 and Speech 1010
§
many of the sections of Health 1260 (Personal Health) and
Psychology 1210 (Psychology of Personal Adjustment), which have been tagged
the two ‘Freshman Experience’ courses offered at APSU
§
five out of six of the graduate programs which have a
‘research’ course
§
classes taught at the Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell
Librarians have been involved in the Heritage Program from
its inception 12 years ago. Course-integrated
instruction occurs in two Heritage Writing, Speaking and Researching Across the
Curriculum courses in which librarians team-teach with Composition and Speech
instructors to integrate research into the writing and speaking processes that
students learn. What we learn in
Heritage influences the course-related instruction we provide.
The Library Instruction and Computer Room built in 1994
gives us the ability to actively engage students in learning about the research
process. Shifts in instructional
emphases occurred in 1995 when an online public access catalog was added and
soon thereafter when we began including the World Wide Web in our instruction.
Program strengths include:
§
dedicated instruction librarians
§
a Library Instruction and Computer Room (LICR) in which to conduct
instruction and engage students in active learning
§
web-based instructional materials which are integrated with
information resources at APSU Library’s web site
§
distance education—students at Fort Campbell receive the same
library instruction opportunities as on-campus students
Program weaknesses include:
§
library instruction is not reaching all students; there is no one
course in which all students can be reached
§
the same students receive the same instruction more than once
§
librarians have only one-shot at most students
§
the mechanics of searching get too much attention; needed concepts
and skills are not covered well enough
Time and limited personnel will be the major constraints
experienced in examining the programmatic issue. An opportunity to improve our Program exists by gaining new
skills at the Immersion Institute which can be used develop an action plan in
which the Program is reviewed and modified according to the Standards.
Implementing the action plan will improve our Program.
|
